End of a Thief
by Never-Ending-Donkey
Summary: Nami, still working to save Cocoyashi Village, runs afoul of someone who suffered over her actions. Grimdark, contains character death. I am so sorry.


A luxury cruise ship sailed through the peaceful waters of East Blue. Though piracy was on the rise in other parts of the world, the easternmost sea was historically the safest, and pirate attacks were relatively unlikely compared to its sister seas. For this reason, the affluent passengers attended their various amusements and diversions without a care in the world.

None were quite as spectacular, however, as the grand ball taking place in the ship's elegant ballroom. The musicians played a waltz as revelers danced together across the floor in their finest clothes. But there was one young woman standing alone, her eyes watching the sea through a large porthole. She was a lovely creature, with her orange hair ending just short of her shoulders, and her brown eyes sparkled with intelligence. The girl wore a fairly simple ballgown, cream-colored with a dark red wave pattern. While there were certainly girls her age present with finer gowns, her beauty was still enough to attract a young man's attention.

"Pardon me, Miss," he murmured to her with a small bow, catching her attention. "May I have this dance?"

The girl sized him up, noting his quality suit and overall well-coiffed appearance. Polite AND dapper. Maybe even rich. Smiling graciously, she nodded and gave him her hand, letting him lead her to the dance floor. As they waltzed, she tried not to look at him too much. However young and handsome he might be, she wasn't here to land a husband.

They hadn't been dancing for long before a loud, thundering noise ripped through the air, followed by a splash! In an instant, the ballroom erupted into panic. A pirate attack! Everyone hurried out to find somewhere to hide. Everyone, that is, except for the girl. She stood still, a smirk spreading on her slender lips. This was exactly what she was hoping would happen; a luxury cruise ship was all too tempting a morsel for pirate scum!

She cast off her dress, revealing a more practical nautically-minded outfit underneath consisting of a dark blue tunic, black pants held up by a red sash, and simple soft boots, ideal for sneaking. Tying a black bandanna over her hair, she set off to do her work, climbing aboard the pirate ship once it was close enough. She'd look far less out of place in this getup than that party dress.

Yes, she was the cat burglar Nami, a thief who stole only from pirates. As tempting as it might have been to simply rob all of those rich folks blind, they hadn't done anything to hurt her. But pirates were a different story: vicious, selfish, heartless abominations of humanity who destroyed villages and murdered families. This Nami knew from experience, and this was why she was sneaking across the deck of the pirate ship, confident that its crew were too busy shaking down tycoons and heiresses for their pocket change to notice her intrusion.

Following her instincts, Nami moved toward the ship's cabin, as pirate captains tended to keep the biggest share of every raid for themselves. The door wasn't even locked; what kinds of amateurs were these people?

"Let's see, where are you?" she muttered, scanning the inside of the cabin. Her eyes landed on a large, tempting chest tucked away in a corner. "Aha! There you are! Come to mama."

Saying this, she made her way over and set about picking the lock. Making quick work of it, Nami threw open the chest to see what kind of magnificent loot there was for the taking, when suddenly...

"HEY!" a raspy voice shouted. The girl looked up to see a towering beast of a man standing in the doorway, glaring at her. Like her, he wore the stereotypical pirate's outfit, albeit in a far more slovenly fashion. "I ain't seen you around, girlie!"

Most thieves would have feared for their lives at this point, but Nami was as crafty as she was beautiful and thought something up fast. Adopting a flirtatious demeanor, she giggled and said in a bubbly voice, "Looks like you caught me, handsome. But don't you worry, I'll pay you back... with my body."

Silence. The man didn't budge. Strange, usually these meatheads went googoo over her sex kitten act. Then, the man shook his head and growled, "I like big girls."

With that, he lunged at Nami, who leaped out of the way and darted around behind him, running back out onto the open deck to escape...

...only for someone to trip her, making her fall face-down on the planks.

"OOF!" she grunted as the fall knocked the wind out of her, but before she could move, several strong hands seized Nami's arms and legs, keeping her pinned down. "No, no, this is all a misunderstandi-UGHFFMMM!"

A thick wad of cloth crammed in her mouth cut off her pleas, and just as quickly, one of her captors pulled the bandanna from her head and wrapped it over her lips, tying off the ends tight behind her head at the nape of her neck and forming an effective gag. It covered her lower face from just under her nose to the underside of her chin. She whimpered through the gag as she felt her arms pulled behind her back and the cold clink of metal on her wrists and ankles. Nami was shackled hand and foot and the mercy of pirates!

What were they going to do with her? Hundreds of scenarios played out in her head as she struggled against her bonds, none of them pleasant. Just then, footsteps caught her ear as she noticed a pair of tall leather boots headed her way.

"Cap'n, we caught this here sneak-thief pokin' around yer cabin," one of the pirates explained. "Thought it might be the one ya told us about, so we cuffed 'er up fer ya."

Arching her back, Nami looked up as the boots stopped in front of her face to see another girl, one who could only be about as old as herself. The female captain had long chestnut-brown hair, with a fringe of bangs covering her right eye, with the visible one being green. She wore a red captain's coat, with a shoulder belt that held several throwing knives. The girl glared down at the captive thief with contempt.

"Let me get a good look at her," the captain said in a soft voice. Her subordinates complied, pulling Nami into a kneeling position, which provoked a muffled squeak from her. The captain bent at the waist, leaning in to study the parts of Nami's face that weren't obscured by the gag. The bound and gagged thief noticed what looked like a thin black headband against the other girl's forehead as they were face to face.

"Mmmgh, hmmmf," Nami mumbled, trying to convince the captain to remove her gag, but the captain simply gave her a ferocious backhanded slap, making her squeal in pain.

"Shut up, whore!" the captain yelled, her voice taking a savage tone. "It IS you! You're the one who robbed Daddy!"

 _Daddy?_ Nami thought. _Who is she talking about? I only steal from pirates, I'd never-_

Another slap, harder than the one before, interrupted her panicked ruminations as the captain continued ranting: "So you don't remember, do you? You witch! You parasite! My daddy just wanted to pay off his debts. He only stole from those mean merchants who kept raising prices!"

Nami racked her brain, trying to make sense of what she was hearing. Merchant ship... she could recall being a stowaway on one, and the crew did put up with a disagreeable master... how long ago was that?

"Four years," the pirate girl hissed, "four years I've been looking for you! Do you know what happened when Daddy couldn't pay the big man who took our shop? Do you?!"

She crouched down, her face level with Nami's, and swept back her bangs to show her right eye, or rather, the thick black patch that covered it. Through clenched teeth, she growled, "He took my fucking eye, that's what he did! Then he called the Marines on Daddy!"

Nami's eyes grew wide as dinner plates. She never thought she'd hurt an innocent person by robbing pirates! This girl was just like her! The captive thief tried to speak through her gag, to protest that her role in the father's destruction was an unwitting one, but her words came out unintelligible. Nami silently cursed the gag that held back her voice, prevented her own story of struggle and heartache from being known to her captors.

"He told me about you, you know," the captain continued. "The last time I ever spoke to him before they took him away to the scaffold and stuck him with those horrible spears. He said there was a girl with bright orange hair and dark brown eyes who seduced his quartermaster and stole the loot. How she slipped away in a rowboat before he could stop her... how she ignored him even when he was begging her to come back... come back, he said, m-my poor wife and child..."

The captain began to cry as she finished her story, tears running from her good eye and under her patch. Her crew stood by solemnly, a far cry from the arrogant and heartless thieves Nami had come to expect to see in pirates. Were they remnants of the father's crew?

"On yer orders, Miss Lina," said the pirate who'd discovered Nami. "The place, the time, the torment. We'll be ready."

Once Captain Lina had recovered her composure, she nodded and commanded, "Sail forty leagues from here, drop anchor, and wait for sunset. Then, when the last rays of light are disappearing, drop this hussy over the side of the ship and let her sink under the waves. A fitting end for a cowardly thief."

"NNNN!" Nami wailed, shaking her head frantically. This couldn't be happening! She couldn't die here, not while her village was depending on her! Who would save them from that monster Arlong if she wasn't in this world?

"Aye, cap'n," the pirates answered. One of them produced an iron ball-and-chain and set about fastening it to the shackles that bound Nami's ankles. He was a severe-looking man with a full dirty-blond beard, and stared at the hapless girl with cold eyes, remarking, "Fool me once, never again. Cap'n Anglund was a good man."

What followed were the longest, most agonizing hours of Nami's life as the ship sailed off into the distance, carrying her to her impending demise. She wept and pleaded for her life through the stifling gag, trying in vain to convince someone, anyone to let her go, or at least convince the captain to listen to her. Then, as she saw the crew furl the sails and throw down the anchor, despair began to set in.

She didn't want to die.

The minutes crawled by as the sun sank lower and lower, disappearing on the horizon. Nami screamed into her gag, but no one paid her any attention. Not until that critical moment.

"It's time," Lina announced. Nodding, her crewmates approached the shivering, helpless thief and lifted her, iron ball and all, and carried her to the edge of the ship. Tear stains covered her cheeks, and her eyes were red and puffy from crying, but she didn't try to struggle. There was no point; she was small and lithe, and they were all bigger than her.

Turning her head to face Lina, Nami whimpered through her gag one more time in a last-ditch effort to change her mind.

"Plllmms..."

"Tell it to the water," Lina snarled. The young captain nodded to her men, who dropped their captive over the edge. For a moment, everything stood still for Nami before gravity kicked in, the iron ball plummeting her toward the water surface, barely giving her enough time to take one more deep breath...

TCHOOM! The weight hit the water with incredible force as it pulled the chained and gagged girl under the sea. Nami felt the water's chill immediately, her head snapping up to watch as the surface grew farther and farther. But as the ball-and-chain dragged her further down, the sinking thief let her fighting spirit take over.

"MMM! HMMMG! UMMMPH!" she grunted past her tight gag, which hadn't budged a bit despite the fall's force, struggling furiously against her shackles. No matter how impossible escape seemed for her, she couldn't let it end here! But the cuffs wouldn't budge. Where were her lockpicks?!

As her descent continued, Nami felt the pressure changes start to affect her body, making her struggle to keep from releasing what was left of her air. Fish swam away from her, avoiding the unfamiliar form that was passing through their domain. Fighting back the urge to whimper, Nami realized it wouldn't be long before she hit the bottom. Escape would be next to impossible by then.

When at last the ball did strike the bottom of the sea, it kicked up a cloud of sand and silt, forcing Nami to close her eyes as her momentum propelled her against the sea floor. Since her hands were tied behind her back, she had to flex her shoulders to swim her way back into an upright position. The sunken thief scanned her surroundings, unsure of what to look for, but knowing she needed something to get herself out of the cuffs.

All of a sudden, a familiar sheen caught her eye: her lockpicks! They must have fallen out of her sash while she was struggling... but they were a fair distance from where she'd landed. Knowing she didn't have any other options, Nami gathered her strength, crouched her legs, and lunged forward...

...only for the chain to pull taut and force her back. The gagged thief looked over her shoulder, and her heart sank when she realized the ball had sunk firm into the sand. She had to try again.

"Ufff," she grunted, lunging toward her lockpicks again. The ball barely moved, and she lost more air.

"Nnnh," she groaned, her vision blurring as she pushed herself further. Again, she barely made any progress. Her vision was starting to blur, and her lungs were screaming for air.

"Gllblmm," she gurgled, making one last desperate lunge for her lockpicking tools. It was futile. She'd already lost so much air, and fatigue was setting in. The last of her air left through her nose, and Nami looked up one more time, her vision almost gone as the moonlight began to penetrate the murky waters.

 _Nojiko, Genzo, I'm sorry,_ she thought to herself as her consciousness faded, her deep brown eyes closing. _I've failed you all... I've failed Bellemere..._

Those were the last words to run through her remorseful mind as her limp figure hit the sea floor, the iron ball finally coming free from its sandy base, but too late. Nami's bound and gagged form floated back up as far as her ball-and-chain anchor would allow, remaining still as water flooded into her lungs. Her adventure would end here, her dream unfulfilled, her family denied justice. East Blue, the ocean that had seemed so peaceful, became her grave.

Forever.


End file.
